A Little Injury
by hundredtimes
Summary: Christmas at Hogwarts proves to be no small injury for Lily Evans and James Potter.  It turns into much more than that.


Lily Evans clutched her wool cloak against the bitter, late fall wind. The squishing noise of her boots in the cold, wet ground around Greenhouse 5 made her cringe in disgust as she forced herself to not think of the mud that was probably already drying as hard as brick. NEWT-level Herbology was her least favorite class that year- not because of the material, but because of the tropical plants that were kept in Greenhouse 5. The natural environments of the plants demanding that the greenhouse be magically warmed to keep the plants healthy; but that caused about a meter and a half radius of surrounding earth to defrost and turn into a sloshing, mucky trap that none could evade. None except James Potter and Sirius Black who, in their never ending competition to find which was the bigger idiot, were trying their hardest to throw each other into the muck.

Lily rolled her eyes and hurried around their antics. "Mary, wait for me!" she called out. She saw the brunette turn her head and stop before also rolling her eyes at the Head Boy and his best friend. She approached Mary, and the two leaned in to discuss Lily's travels to Zonko's from the weekend. Only seconds had passed before Lily heard a grunt and a loud splat, then felt something spatter against her cloak.

Hearing the laughter coming from behind her, she turned on her heel, ready to dock points from her own house. While trying his best, and failing, to stifle his laughter, James made to push out of the mud he had been tossed into. In an instant the smile fell and he winced in obvious pain.

Lily rushed to his side. "Are you alright?"

"Yea, yea. I'm fi-ach!" James tried moving, but quickly pulled his right arm into himself.

Lily looked to Sirius, "Help me get him up!" She urgently grabbed James's left arm and indicated for Sirius to heft him out of the mud. She called out to the small crowd of on-lookers, "Now I'm pretty sure no one here knows how to heal him?"

Sirius chuckled as though he didn't have a care in the world. "Of course we do. _Feru-"_ He raised his wand to cast a spell but Lily quickly shot out her hand to stop him.

"We don't know what's wrong with his arm! If you perform the wrong medi-spell you could really hurt him."

Sirius groaned, but put his wand away. "Well, what do you suggest?"

Lily just stared at him, dumbfounded. "We take him to the Hospital Wing, you bloody-" she cut herself off and shook her head. "Come on."

Silent, James and Sirius shared a smirk before letting Lily lead the way to the Hospital Wing. "Mary, let them know what's happened, yeah?" She called over her shoulder. "Come on, you two."

The next morning, Lily made her way to the Hospital Wing as quickly as she could, with a bouquet of poorly transfigured flowers in her hand. But when she came to the bed she and Sirius had placed James in the day before, the sheets were pristine and untouched. Thinking she must be losing her mind, she turned and spotted Madam Pomfrey. "Where is he? What's happened to him?" Lily was getting frantic. She knew infections could happen to broken bones. Things can always go wrong, no matter how simple the illness.

But Pomfrey just stared. "I released him first thing this morning. It was just a broken bone, my dear." She rolled her eyes. "Honestly."

Lily left the Hospital Wing feeling like an absolute idiot. As she walked down the corridors, she was aware of the odd looks others gave her, undoubtedly the result of her carrying the bouquet of ugly flowers. "Ugh! Bloody prat." She threw the flowers onto a bench and sat next to them.

"Anyone I know?" She heard.

Lily leapt off the bench when she saw her Head Boy in front of her, a smirk on his _stupid_ face. "No, just- just whoever left these stupid flowers here." She performed a quick clean-up charm and turned back to him.

"I was just headed down to the Great Hall." He began, looking hesitantly hopeful.

Lily offered a smile. "Me too."

Once inside the Great Hall, the sounds of laughter and loud voices became near deafening. Lily sat down next to her friends and watched James as he made his way to the Marauders.

As the owls swooped in for mail delivery, a large pretty green envelope, decorated all around with red, frilly scrollwork, was dropped right onto Lily's plate. She reached to open it, but it levitated away from her hands. It stopped when it was level with her eyes, and then, as she watched in shock, it began to sing.

"Ode to a Lily" it rang above the crowd, "my lovely Lily, as pretty as a filly, your eyes are as green as summer leaves. Around you I once acted a git. But I just wanted to see yo-" Lily reached for it suddenly. It struggled, gagging on the rest of its message for a moment, before finally giving up the fight to Lily's grip. Her eyes were wide, and her cheeks were bright red.

She raised her eyes to glare at James, but he looked just as dumbstruck as she did. Then she heard a muffled snort and turned to her left where Sirius had his hand clapped over his mouth, trying to stifle his laughter. Peter was turning purple from trying to keep his giggles inside.

Lily sat up from the table quickly, "Five points, each." She said before leaving the now silent Great Hall.

James punched Sirius in the arm. He pretended it hurt more than it did, "Hell, it was Pete's idea!" James ignored him and chased after Lily amid catcalls and wolf whistles.

Lily was already on the landing in the Entry Hall when she heard Sirius's booming voice, "Alright, come on! I've poked enough fun for the lot of you!"

"I didn't send that," she heard from behind her as James made his way up the staircase.

"I know." She offered him a smile, but kept walking.

"So you're leaving today, yeah?" He spoke quietly, "I don't know what I'll do without my Head Girl. How will I keep the peace?"

"I'm sure you'll make do. Just keep your idiot best friend out of trouble and it's a piece of cake." They spent the rest of the walk to Gryffindor tower in embarrassed silence, before finally reaching the Fat Lady. They crawled through the entrance to the common room. Feeling brave, Lily turned on him quickly, "if I give you a Christmas present now, do you promise not to open it?" When he nodded, she dashed up the stairs to her dorm. She took two steps at a time on her way back down. "Look, just remember that this is taking a lot for me to do, but I really think you'll enjoy it. Especially after today." She handed him a crisply wrapped red box. "Consider it payback." She winked and walked around him and out the portrait hole.

Lily stood on the platform in Hogsmeade, ready to board the Hogwarts Express when Dorcas nudged her. "Guess he opened his Christmas present early. Naughty minx." Lily looked at her, confused, and Dorcas rolled her eyes before nodding at something over Lily's shoulder.

When Lily saw James coming towards her, she let a huge smile cross her face. '_This is it,_' she thought, _"moment of truth._' The closer he came, though, she saw he looked more frustrated than her expected thrilled. But then he began to speak, "I get it. You could have just talked to me like the mature person you're always portraying yourself to be. You want to be upset with me for something I didn't do? Fine, but don't send a bloody Christmas wreath with a jinx! It tried to strangle me!" He stared at her for a moment, and she could see the disappointment flicker in his eyes. Before she could respond, he turned and headed back to the castle.

Lily was dumbstruck. She turned to Dorcas, "what just happened?"

The train home was very quiet, with Lily replaying everything from the previous week over and over in her mind. Where had she gone wrong with the spell? Dorcas chatted quietly to Caradoc Dearborn- also headed home for the holidays- as she let Lily have some time to herself. It wasn't until the last hour of the trip that Lily began to join the conversation. Once at Kings Cross, Lily made quick work of finding her parents on the other side of the barrier. Far too happy to have their daughter back, Lily's parents didn't notice her sullen mood, and Lily let herself be swept up in the excitement.

For the whole of the holiday, Lily let the joy of being home, celebrating with her family and being away from anyone and anything that could remind her of Hogwarts, keep her mind off that last day at the station. She even let the dirty Cokeworth snow bring her spirits up.

Until the last day of holiday, Lily was able to avoid thinking about the inevitable. But soon she was sitting in a horseless carriage, on her way back to school. Her replies to Dorcas became curter until finally she wasn't answering her at all. "Lily, you can't let it bother you like this," Dorcas put her hand on her friend's knee, "He's a tosser for acting like that. He pulls jokes like that all the time and he can't take one from you? You were just trying to show an interest in him, for Merlin's sake"

Lily said nothing.

After dinner that night, Lily made her way to the lake and stood staring across at the Forbidden Forest.

"You're not going to eat?" The voice made her jump, and Lily looked behind her to confirm what she already knew; but she quickly turned back around.

"What do you want, Potter?"

"Just thought you'd want to know the wreath has calmed down quite nicely. Remus set it out above the fireplace one day and it followed a third year around until lunch." He chuckled, testing the waters.

Lily only looked confused. "So you _liked_ the present then?" She asked, incredulously.

"Look, Lily-"

"It's Evans to you."

"_Fine_" he sounded stressed, "Evans." He sighed loudly. "I'm sorry. I found the card you put with it." Lily turned around quickly with wide eyes. "And I realize I really, _really_ overreacted when it tried to strangle me."

Lily looked up, into his eyes, and opened her mouth to scathe him with some witty banter she hadn't planned yet. But her voice stuck in her throat.

Snow was falling around them, gathering quickly on the grassy cliff. She couldn't help the smile that spread as the snow collected at her feet and in her hair. She laughed. Then she felt lips on the corner of her mouth. "Merry Christmas, Lily."

Lily looked him in the eyes, and then looked around her. She noticed that, while snow fell over them, the rest of the grounds were clear. "I know how much you love snow, and this year we haven't had any yet. So…" He trailed off and she kissed him. It was better than she had imagined it, as the real thing usually is.

As the snow fell around them, Lily began to feel something tickling her hair; she pulled away to look up. "Mistletoe, really? Didn't think you'd seal the deal did you?" She asked as she reached for his lips again.

But before their lips met, James turned his head and saw three familiar heads just behind a rock, just too small to hide behind. He rolled his eyes and moved his arms to around her waist. "Let's just go with that," he said before he kissed her again.


End file.
